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President Pranab Mukherjee joined Congress president Sonia Gandhi in expressing serious concern over growing number of mob lynching cases in India, wondering whether the society is vigilant enough to save the basic tenets of the country.

“When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough?,” Mukherjee said at the release of commemorative publication of relaunched National Herald here.

Sonia Gandhi, who spoke at the function, said, "It is being encouraged by a culture of vigilante violence, actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law."

President Pranab Mukherjee with Congress President Sonia Gandhi release commemorative publication of National Herald at a function in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI Photo

Later, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of the Congress president, told reporters that "It (incident of lynching) makes my blood boil. It should make blood of every Indian boil."

Mukherjee’s comment and Sonia Gandhi’s criticism came in the wake of reports about the spiralling violence over beef.

Mukherjee, who retires later this month, said, "When mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect. I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of are we vigilant enough, proactively to save the basic tenets of our country.”

He said, "I do believe that citizens’ and media vigilance can act as the biggest deterrent to forces of darkness and backwardness."

Congress president Sonia Gandhi said India is being marked by increasing threats of ’authoritarianism.’

She said, "Today the tried and tested idea of India has been thrown fundamentally into question by rising intolerance, by malevolent forces. It is being encouraged by a culture of vigilantive violence, actively supported by those who are supposed to enforce the law."

Gandhi further said that National Herald newspaper, which has been revived, is a testament to unity and justice and "not the division and hate that the present times are witnessing.

She said, "We are in a war of ideas, we have reached this war to preserve our ideas, which have built India as a model of democracy diversity and coexistence.if we don’t raise our voices, if we do not speak up, our voices will be taken as consent."

A day after nationwide protests against lynchings spilt onto the streets, Modi had on Thursday broke his silence at Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat and said killing people in the name of gau bhakti (devotion to the cow) is not acceptable.

The PM also said Mahatma Gandhi would not have approved of it and that no person in the country has the right to take the law into his own hands.

However, Modi’s warning seemed to have had a little effect as just hours after his speech, Alimuddin, a meat trader, was lynched in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh.

Many cities witnessed protests across various locations under the tagline “Not in My Name” to protest against the lynching of 15-year-old Junaid Khan in a Mathura-bound train last week.